WHAT THE PAPERS SAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 307, 28 December 1935, Page 8

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY

* POINTS FROM THE PRESS.

NEW ZEALAND AUTHORS

New Zealand writers who have gone Home have done well in London, but we know only one New Zealand novelist who is read on tramcars in her native country—the most promising of all signs of- appreciation from a pecuniary if not necessarily from an immortality point of view. There are New Zealand readers, we have heard, who do not want to read about their own country.- They'believe that they know as much about that as any native-born novelist can tell them. Stories set in such a familiar environment, apart from any question of their quality, to them are simply not novels at all. We have not learned yet to honour native writers as their * merits, and also their subjects, deserve. The scope for entertainment, as well as knowledge, will be enlarged when a great many earlier works, now out' of print, can be republished. And there should be more inducement for "collected works" to be issued of those, not only poets, whose productions appear in such slight, fragile form, for the sake of cheapness, that even the enthusiast finds it difficult not to lose them amongst bulkier volumes. We recall the complaint that is. expressed in a foreword to the late Dr. Gordon Mac Donald's admirable little story of a migration, "The Highlanders of Waipu." "The story," it is explained, "could easily be extended into a very interesting volume, but the experience of others who have tried bookmaking in New Zealand acts as a deterrent." It ought not to be so. It may be .less so in the future if those who buy books for gifts give some thought to New Zealand authors. — Dunedin "Evening Star." • • • • NEW ZEALAND'S NEEDS. The British Government is about to appoint an Empire Settlement Board, abolishing the existing Overseas Settlement Committee, to submit selected migration schemes to oversea Government!? and if they are acceptable put them "promptly into operation." It must impress those who arc doing the Empirebuilding overseas that there have been many chances of name in the bodies that are handling this problem. There is in existence to-day a Committee of Migration and a British Dominions Emigration Society. The most practicable report among these bodies is that of the Committee of Migration, which has concluded that successful migration on a large scale must follow and not precede economic recover}-, and that artificial stimulation by large State- expenditure must be ruled out. Colonel Tristram Crutchley, who has surveyed the possibilities of land settlement within the Empire from experience gained while he was representative of the British Government in Australia, says that the doors to mass settlement are not yet open, and that Britain must rely on the spontaneity" of individual enterprise among the immigrants. That is the common-sense view. Quite recently the British Dominions Emigration Society drew a harrowing picture of "hundreds of thousands of strong, capable and willing workers on the dole in England," and the ample room for the successful settlement of large numbers of such people in the Dominions. "The transfer of these families living in our congested areas," it said, "is an unspeakable blessing to them, a relief to the Mother Country, and a great and lasting advantage to the* Dominions." The last part of that observation is quite unfounded. New Zealand to-day requires, first and foremost, skilled tradesmen for the development of its secondary industries, but Britain has few skilled tradesmen to spare. These are the very men, however, who are most .likely to show individual enterprise and spontaneity, if the requirements and the attractions of the Dominion are placed intelligently before them. The general prosperity of the Dominion will create opportunities for employment without recourse necessarily to mass migration, and the Government of' New Zealand will probably offer some assistance, substantial if necessary, to induce a stream of migrant tradesmen to the industries of the Dominion that can be made self-supporting. — "Christchurch StarSun."

COST OF LOCAL ELECTIONS. At its meeting last week the Lyttelton Harbour Board was justifiably perturbed to discover that it had cost £901 to return four members at the municipal elections in May. And in a summary of the expenses for the last three elections, the secretary estimated that the total cost for seven years' membership for four members was £2207. The bill this year—£22s for each member elected—is higher than usual; but from the figures quoted it "seems that even in normal years it is not less than £150 a member. . The national implications of these figures are alarming. There are about 700 local bodies in New Zealand. If their average membership is 10, and that is a low estimate, and if the average cost of electing a member is £100, then the annual cost of local elections, assuming that most of them are held every three years, is not less than £250,000. Though this is crude guesswork, it is near enough to the truth to show that the cost of local elections, which ratepayers seldom worry about, is in fact a very substantial item in the cost of local government. The best way to reduce it is, of course, to reduce the number of local bodies. There, would bo no loss to anyone in this step. With 200 local bodies instead of 700, the cost •/ local services would be less, administration would be more efficient, local body staffs would be better paid and organised, and administrative areas would be more in relation to modern requirements. The other factor, beside the superfluity of authorities, in the hi/rh cost of local elections, is the wide variety of local franchises. The members of the Lyttelton Harbour Board, for instance. are elected on three different franchises and the members of hospital boards on two different franchises. The adoption of one local government franchise for all local elections, after the English practice, would reduce the cost both of preparing rolls and conducting elections. It is even worth considering whether the local government and Parliamentary franchises could not be assimilated. —Christchurch "Press."

CHARACTER BUILDING. At tlie end of the year civil servants and the public, may envy the long vacation that is enjoyed by the teaching profession. Yet privileges go hand in hand with responsibilities, and the long vacation is a privilege that the teaching profession lias every right to enjoy. It is not too much to say that the charaeters of a people are shaped in the schools, and the schools are what the teachers make them. Whatever character combines — honesty, intelligence and morality —receives its foundation in the schools and the character of the teacher is reflected, deeply and perhaps for all time, in the characters of his pupils. Thus the teaching profession has responsibilities that are not approached in any other public service or in any other walk of "life. It is at the end of the school year that these responsibilities receive most prominence, and there is a general realisation of the important work that is done by the teaching profession in building for the future. When pupils leave school, to take their part in the hurly-burly of life the teacher knows that much knowledge imparted with great care will soon be forgotten. But lie knows also that the pupils will not forget the character training received in the schools, and that if this training is successful the pupils are fully equipped to face life with all its trials. No training can be wholly successful unless the pupil is aided by the example of the teacher. and it is in this that the great responsibility of the teacher rests. — "Taranaki Herald."